So why in the world does rent keep jumping through the ceiling in Boston, NYC and SF. Housing prices have gone up despite this 'bust' in real estate. I didn't see a single landlord in those cities drop (or hold) their rent, despite how bad the 'drop' (again, which I didn't really see) was.

I think most people in this thread are not talking about buying a house as an investment, but rather, as a value store compared to rent.

The two are inseparable, buying a house to avoid variable rent prices doesn't reduce your exposure to the housing market, it actually increases it because you're leveraging against it (because you're borrowing money to do it).

If house prices drop you can be stuck in negative equity whereby you owe more money on your house than it's worth which can easily bankrupt you. If you're renting that's obviously a problem you're not exposed to and you actually benefit from a declining market as your rent decreases.

Of course they are separable.

If you are buying a home to live in rather than an investment you can ride out the odd declining market.

Seems like people have a lot of 'once bitten, twice shy' syndrome when it comes to housing. Market corrections like 2008 are exceedingly rare. I am not saying prices go up forever like so many idiots did around that time, but if you buy in a non-volatile market, it is a pretty safe bet that your home price will at least retain much of its value.

There's no such thing as a "safe bet". If housing was a safe bet then significant amounts on money would feed into the housing money until it stopped being a safe bet. That's just basic market efficiency theory.

Most mortgages are typically 30+ years, based on historic data you're almost guaranteed to see a house price crash sometime over a 30 year period.

(Although it's important to remember that the future isn't necessarily going to reflect the past)

You are not understanding.

I am not saying it is a safe /investment/ I am saying it is a safe(ish) /value store/. There is a big difference.

Your comment is the equivalent of saying "Saving accounts are not a safe bet. If it were everyone would be putting money into savings accounts until it stopped being a safe bet."

You have to pay so much to have a roof over your head whether it is through rent or through ownership. Even if a house is a loser, investment wise, it can be a winner value-store wise.

Now, you can totally mess that up by buying a home at the peak of a bubble and watch it tumble to near worthlessness, no doubt. But that is not the situation 99.999% of potential homeowners face.

It's safe-ish /as long as you continue to live there/. If you ever need to move for whatever reason you're back to the mercies of whatever market cycle happens to be in force.

That's true. And the real risk in buying a primary residence is in churn costs which are relatively huge and take years to make up.